Posts tagged 'stretching'

Your kneecaps (patella bone) are designed for more than just good looks. Their real and very important function is to give added leverage to your Quadriceps muscles (knee muscles in the front of your thigh).
When running, biking, swimming or climbing, you need all the leverage you can get to handle the amazing amount of force that is put through your knees. In fact, because of their importance, kneecap problems can be the unfortunate demise of an athlete's career...

Brrr! A lot of our country is experiencing some pretty cold weather! For those of us in snowy climates, ’tis the season for shoveling … and low back injuries! However, you don’t have to have a shovel in your hand to hurt your back. Many people hurt their backs reaching down to pick up a pen off the floor or grabbing something out of the bottom drawer of the fridge!

In this issue of Muscle News, we will address the irritating, painful and sometimes disabling condition of a nerve being compressed in our bodies.
With even just a brief instant of compression on a nerve, such as when we hit our "funny bone" in the elbow (the Ulnar Nerve), we can experience shooting pain, numbness, tingling and weakness. When prolonged compression of a nerve occurs, such as a pinched nerve in the neck or low back (for example, sciatica), it can be extremely painful or even debilitating.
A nerve that is commonly compressed and creates serious pain, numbness and weakness in the forearm, wrist, hand and fingers is called the Median Nerve, and it can be tricky, evading proper diagnosis and thwarting attempts at treatment. Its tendency to get trapped and compressed at multiple places from the neck to the wrist earns it the nickname the "Pinch Me" nerve.

When John started receiving trigger point therapy, it was after a long struggle with tendonitis-like pain in his hands. He had seen a doctor who told him he had Rheumatoid Arthritis. John went to a specialist at a prominent hospital who was considered to be one of the best in the country. This doctor ran some additional testing which revealed that John DID NOT have Rheumatoid Arthritis. He told John that what he had was Myofascial Pain.

If you've been following these Muscle News publications, it should come as no surprise that another extremely common condition can be caused by myofascial trigger points and we can correct it ourselves with simple techniques: Shoulder Pain!
Trigger points in this week's highlighted muscle can result in:
Front of the Shoulder Pain
Deep Shoulder Joint Pain
Pain Between the Shoulder Blades
Forearm Pain or Weakened Grip Strength
Difficulty reaching back to get something from the back seat of the car, comb your hair, fasten your brassiere, pull something out of your back pocket, put a jacket on, zip up your dress, or grab something off the nightstand by your bed.